Beetlebat :: Beginnings – RapReviews

In many ways, I have a lot of respect for Braeden, better known as Beetlebat. There are a lot of things about him that I found instantly relatable when I first discovered his music. He’s a small-time content creator on YouTube (same), he makes what he wants without chasing influence (same), and he admits that a lot of what he does is for his own amusement or entertainment (same). We can’t all be as big as MoistCr1tikal or PewDiePie, so if you’re not having fun doing it, what’s the point? If you ask a lot of famous creators, the fame isn’t worth it. It comes with the constant anxiety of growing your subscriber base, keeping your core fans happy, avoiding major controversy, and constantly criticizing an algorithm you have no control over. I certainly don’t need that headache.

I can’t tell you that “Beginnings” is a legendary album or that “On the Regular” is a great rap song, but at least there’s honesty when he says “All this stress surrounds me/I just want to be who I want to be.” I kind of feel like Scott The Woz is rapping at me, and that’s not a bad thing (hi guys). The failure of his approach is when he imitates the clichés of flossy rappers on songs like “Fresh.” His vocal tone is not suited to say things like “I talked to the team.” It sounds forced and hollow. The beat is nice though and he wins me back with bars like “Honestly, I didn’t think I would come here.” Okay Braeden, you can do it.

It’s the contrast between the beats and the person rapping over them that constantly confuses. “Turn It Up” has real BOOM fitting with the name of the song, but there’s a complete lack of connection when I hear this seemingly sincere YouTube creator say “When I walk into the club, I immediately turn up the volume.” I hope Braeden understands that I mean this honestly and without malice — it sounds like the world’s nerdiest version of Three 6 Mafia. It makes me laugh and at least that’s a positive emotional reaction rather than a negative one, so I can’t hate it, but I can’t really take it seriously either.

Ultimately, that’s where I have to stop with “Beginnings.” I don’t regret listening to his release, but I think I would like an instrumental version of “Turn It Up” just as much or more than the song with the lyrics, and that’s not the impression you want to leave people with as a rap artist. But then again, I really don’t feel like he want to to be a rap artist… or at least not a famous one who blows up with a viral TikTok song and suddenly finds himself in commercials with Ben Affleck. So okay. He’s not great, and he’s not trying to be because he’s having fun here, but he’s accidentally better than being fucking bad at it. I guess that’s good enough.